


Escape from Camperture Science

by cunzy4



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series), Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crossover, Camp!Max needs a hug, Everyone Needs Hugs, Gen, Hallucinations, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Portal!Max needs a hug, What Have I Done, bit of both honestly, portal portal au, questionable sanity, whump?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 22:18:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16167983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cunzy4/pseuds/cunzy4
Summary: “Warning,” the synthesized voice announced. “Multiversal fusion reaching critical mass. Chances of total annihilation: forty-seven percent.”“See? That’s less than half! We’ll be fine.” DaVID’s voice sounded echoey and far away. Or maybe that was just Max.His vision was wavering. No… the air in front of him was shimmering. It looked like one of his portals, but it wasn’t attached to a wall. Instead, the nebulous circle tore a hole in midair, and on the other side… Max saw trees.---Two universes collide, and two Maxes start catching glimpses of each other's lives.





	Escape from Camperture Science

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyy everybody! It's your friendly neighborhood fangirl who never writes what people actually want her to write!
> 
> I actually wrote this thing nearly a year ago, and it's been sitting in my WIPs since then because reasons. (possibly goblins) And instead of a new chapter of Kool-Aid, which I'M SORRY I'M A HORRIBLE PERSON AND HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO IT YET I decided to publish this for no good reason!

“Rise and shine, Max!” the chipper robotic voice issued from the invisible speaker, just like it did every morning. “We’ve got some exciting new tests to do today, and there’s no time to waste!”

Max opened his eyes to see the glass of the relaxation vault an inch from his nose. The lid lifted automatically with a _hiss,_ and he was released from the high-tech tomb once again. He contemplated going on strike and refusing to perform the tests, but he’d tried defying DaVID before to no avail. It was difficult to rebel against a robotic overlord who could cut off your oxygen supply at any time.

Without even bothering to flip off the camera, Max rolled out of bed and hopped to the floor. In the spartan environment of the relaxation chamber he called home, he only needed five minutes to prepare to face the grueling challenges that the day would surely bring.

“I appreciate your efficiency, Max!” DaVID cheered as the door opened to release him from the vault. “Your preparation time has improved by eight percent!”

Max didn’t react to the praise as he followed the colored lights down the hallway to the staging area. Here, a circular door barred the way to the rest of the facility, and a stand in the middle of the room held the most important object in his life.

As soon as his fingers closed around the portal gun, Max felt his entire body relax. With this gun, he could control his surroundings, bend reality itself to his will. With this gun, he was nearly unstoppable.  

_Nearly._

Of course, under DaVID’s omnipotent eye, any illusion of independence was more than welcome.

“Now, I’ve taken your scores from yesterday and incorporated them into today’s tests,” DaVID narrated as the door opened to allow Max through. “It’s not going to be easy, but I know you can do it. I believe in you, Max! Good luck!”

With a deep breath, Max faced his daily doom head-on.

DaVID was right about one thing. It wasn’t easy. Max felt his knees begin to tremble before he’d passed through the second room, the death-defying jumps and dizzying shifts in gravity taking a mounting toll on his frail body with each passing day.

He misjudged a jump and narrowly avoided falling to his death, grabbing a ledge by the tips of his fingers. With one hand occupied clinging to the portal gun (drop the gun _don’t drop the gun_ you could die _I’d rather die than lose the gun)_ , Max barely managed to haul himself to safety and lay there, shaking with adrenaline and panic, for a full five minutes before DaVID’s voice broke in again.

“Max, if you stay in one place for too long, it’ll skew your results and affect tomorrow’s tests,” DaVID lectured. “You know I want the best for you, Max. Your vitals are returning to normal, so let’s get back to it! Have fun!”

Limbs still shuddering with the effort, Max somehow managed to haul himself to his feet and trudged through the exit door into the elevator. Before the doors even closed, Max had slid down the wall and collapsed in a panting heap.

Every time Max tried to slow down, to rest, to spend _one second_ doing anything other than testing, it was the same response from DaVID. They were so repetitive by now that Max was beginning to suspect he’d recorded them ahead of time.

_“Now, Max, I know you can do better than this.”_

_“Max, we don’t have time to sit around! There’s science to be done! Isn’t this fun?”_

_“Max, I know you won’t disappoint me.”_

_“I only want what’s best for you.”_

That was why every day, Max forced himself to walk out the door and face test after endless test. Even though every day, it was harder and harder to wring the required exertion out of his tiny, ill-equipped ten-year-old body.

There was a reason DaVID forced a child through a physical and mental gauntlet day after day that would have been grueling for an athletic adult.

Because Max was the only one left.

* * *

 

“Rise and shine, Max!” the chipper voice issued from outside the tent, just like it did every morning. “We’ve got some exciting activities to do today, and there’s no time to waste!”

Max groaned and rolled over in his sleeping bag as David’s voice moved on down the line, accompanied by cheery guitar chords. He briefly contemplated the potential consequences of refusing to get out of bed, but… that would probably lead to David dragging him out of the tent by his ankle again, still grinning like a lunatic.

“Any chance of getting any coffee out here in this godforsaken wilderness?” he griped as he scowled at the bright sunshine, shaking off a weird dream.

“Now, Max, chocolate milk is better for growing bones!” David retorted, sliding a cup in front of him. Max picked up the milk, glared up at David, and dumped the cup onto the floor.

David frowned at him disapprovingly. “Now Max, that’s not nice,” he chastised before his face sprang back into a grin. “You’ll need plenty of energy for today’s fun activities!”

Max let his face hit the table. “I don’t even want to _think_ about what you call ‘fun,’” he groaned, mentally calculating the odds of dropping dead before he had to endure whatever hellish activity faced him today. He hadn’t even finished complaining before David lifted him out of his seat and tossed him over his shoulder as easily as he carried his guitar.

Max accepted his fate and went limp, watching the ground bounce beneath David’s feet.

“You’re going to love this one, Max,” David enthused as he set Max down. “The obstacle course is one of my favorites every year!”

Max felt a shiver of something like déjà vu along his spine as he stared up at the towering platforms and rope bridges strung between the trees. For an instant, his vision was filled not with the vibrant colors of nature, but something cold and white and sterile…

“David, this is possibly the worst idea you’ve ever had,” Max said flatly, opting to replace his apprehension with annoyance. “You can’t possibly expect that half of us aren’t going to fall out of these trees and die.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Max!” David slapped him on the back so hard his vision went black for a second. “Everyone will be in harnesses. It’s perfectly safe!”

Max scowled at David resentfully. “That doesn’t really inspire confidence. That death trap looks, like, a million years old.”

David wasn’t listening. “Go line up and Gwen will help you with your harness. It’s not going to be easy, but I know you can do it. I believe in you, Max! Good luck!”

An acerbic retort sprang to his lips, but another flash of déjà vu left him standing with his mouth hanging open as David turned away to drag Nikki out of a bush. He hesitated for another moment as he tried to place what exactly was reminding him of _what,_ then shook it off and reluctantly joined the line to be strapped into the obstacle course.

In other news, Max was _not_ crazy about trusting his life to a length of rope around his waist that looked like it had been repurposed from Knot Tying Camp. But Nerris, Dolph, and Preston were already climbing around in the trees, and none of _them_ had died. Yet.

Max’s fingers were already loaded with splinters by the time he reached the top of the first platform. Eyeing the course ahead of him, he tried to plot the quickest and least objectionable route to the other end and back to the ground as quickly as possible.

_Jump from the bridge to that tree, climb to the next tree and swing to the opposite platform, put a portal on the floor and- what now?_

Startled by his own errant thought, Max fumbled a leap and ended up hanging by one hand from a branch.

 _Don’t drop the gun,_ was his brain’s first response. Then- _wait, what gun?_

The instant’s hesitation was enough for his fingers to slip from the branch. His stomach lurched as he dropped a foot before the rope caught him, then something _snapped_ and Max was free-falling. Before his brain even registered what was happening, he hit the ground hard and everything went black.

* * *

_“Oh dear, Max,” the robotic voice tutted. “It looks like you’ve taken quite a fall.”_

_“D-david?” Max groaned, feeling the hard floor underneath him. This was indoors- why wasn’t he in the forest?_

_“This is going to affect your scores,” the voice continued, ignoring Max. “If you broke any bones, it’ll set us back for weeks. Honestly, I expected better from you, Max. But I’m sure you’re doing your best, so I won’t penalize you.”_

_Max raised his head an inch off the ground, squinting against the harsh artificial light. “David, where…”_

_His voice died as his mind rejected what he was seeing._

_“What’s the matter, Max?”_

_This wasn’t David. This wasn’t even a human._

_A mechanical monstrosity hung impossibly from the ceiling, smiling down at him with David’s face. The eyes glowed an unnatural green; the hair stuck up in a bizarre metal-plated imitation of David’s cheerful hair floof. Worst of all, the wide smile wasn’t David’s ingenuous grin._

_The smile was predatory._

* * *

 

“Max, are you alright?” The tone was different now. Urgent. Scared _._

“...Max! Can you hear me?” David’s robotic face was an inch from his own.

Max flinched back, scrambling away from the nightmare David. His back hit a tree and he stopped short.

“Wait… wha?” Heart still racing, Max finally managed to get a look at his surroundings.

There was no sign of the white-walled room he had been lying in a moment ago. Instead, there were... trees. Bird noises. Dirt. The forest, where he was _supposed_ to be.

David– _normal_ David– was kneeling nearby, looking concerned and slightly hurt. Nikki and Neil were hovering behind him, looking scared. In the background, Gwen was herding the rest of the kids back to the camp.

“Wha… what the hell?” Max choked out.

“You were out cold for almost five minutes.” David was still staring at him with a worried frown. “Fortunately, you landed in a bush, but you might have a concussion. Does your head hurt?”

“I…” Max swallowed. “I’m fine.” Was he fine? He had no idea.

“You’d better get some rest. Do you want me to take you back to your tent?” David scooted closer, silently offering to carry him.

Max leaned away, then immediately felt guilty when he saw hurt cross David’s face again. He hadn’t meant to make David feel bad, but he couldn’t shake the image of the same face grinning down at him like he was something to eat.

“Uh, I got it, thanks,” Max said quickly, allowing David to help Max to his feet and then dropping his hand.

_That was a seriously weird dream. I probably landed on my head or something. I just need to chill out._

Several hours later, staring at the roof of the tent, Max continued to repeat the words. But Robo-David’s poisonous green eyes still seemed to stare straight into Max’s soul.

* * *

 

Max was off his groove.

He’d been plagued by unusual dreams, and the lack of sleep was affecting his performance. His mind wasn’t quite as sharp as it had been, his reaction time dulled. Sometimes, at the tail end of a long day of tests, he found himself falling asleep in the elevators. Twice in the past week, he’d been clipped by bullets as he dodged the turrets just _slightly_ too slowly.

Worst of all, DaVID noticed, because of course he did.

“Max, your scores have been slipping lately,” the omnipresent voice chided. “I know you can do better than this, Max. I’m counting on you.”

Max, crouching behind the elevator in the camera’s blind spot, squeezed his eyes shut and sighed. He rubbed his bandage-wrapped leg, which throbbed in time with his pulse. He was lucky he could still walk on it. DaVID did _not_ like it when he was incapacitated for long.

The relaxation chamber had to be malfunctioning. That was the only reason Max could come up with to explain the dreams. Normally, he was asleep the moment the glass lid sealed shut over him, and slept soundlessly until DaVID woke him up eight hours later.

The dreams weren’t even _bad,_ technically. Max had never seen a forest in real life, and the sights and sounds of nature were a welcome contrast to his sterile, monochrome world. Some of the faces and voices were similar to those of the robots that serviced the test chambers, but in his dreams they were his friends. Here, he had no company except the ghost that occasionally wrote on the walls. (“groovy” and “totally tubular,” usually)

And DaVID… the main character in his dreams, as in his waking life. But Dream-DaVID’s smile was guileless, his eyes warm and human. It was everything Max had ever wanted.

No wonder he didn’t want to wake up from these dreams.

“Max,” DaVID’s voice had a bite of impatience now. “If you don’t get moving, I’ll have to send in the bots to get you.”

Swallowing a hiss of pain, Max forced himself back to his feet and rounded the elevator to continue the tests. Of all the threats DaVID could use against Max, N.I.K.K.I. and Neil-Bot were among the worst. If Max collapsed during a test or tried to refuse, the two robots were dispatched to revive or otherwise “motivate” him to continue.

Of course, that was hardly the worst tool DaVID had at his disposal.

“Max, I know these past few months have been hard on you, but you’ve performed admirably,” DaVID’s voice lectured as the elevator descended. “Having only a single subject isn’t ideal for objective testing, but humans aren’t so easy to find these days.”

 _I wonder why?!_ Max wanted to scream, but he remained silent as always. Waited for DaVID to get to the point.

“However…”

There it was.

“If you persist in failing to achieve your potential,” DaVID’s voice was a cold parody of a concerned parent, “I may have to look into finding your replacement.”

_Replacement._

There was only one thing that could mean.

Max examined his own emotions with a kind of curious detachment. This was the first direct murder threat DaVID had made. Shouldn’t he be scared, or angry, or at the very least concerned for his life?

He wasn’t. He was just… tired.

He wanted to stop testing. He wanted to fall asleep in his relaxation vault and dream of the peaceful forest and never wake up again. Being replaced, going the way of all the previous test subjects… didn’t sound so bad.

Max was tired. He was _so tired._

Still, when the elevator stopped and the doors opened, some hidden reserve of strength he didn’t know he had forced him to his feet and back out for another round of endless tests. Someday, maybe soon, he would finally break, and DaVID’s hench-bots would dump him down the incinerator shaft just like all the others.

But not today.

* * *

Max was on his third cup of coffee.

He was sick of David’s lectures on how much coffee was “too much for a growing boy,” so he broke into the Quartermaster’s store after dark and stole a stash of instant coffee to hide under his cot.

Max usually needed a good strong cup of joe to help him deal with the morons and delinquents that populated the camp. But these days, he was drinking with a purpose.

He could not allow himself to fall asleep.

Somehow, that bizarre hallucination he’d had after falling out of the tree had found a toehold in his psyche. Every night since then, he’d been plagued with dreams of white-walled rooms and David’s menacing robotic smile.

Nightmares he could handle. Max’s home life wasn’t fantastic, so his sleep was rarely untroubled, but this was different. He couldn’t shake it off during the day. He found himself flinching away from David when the counselor sprang at him without warning, prepared to whisk him off to another dreadful activity.

Not that he didn’t find David’s perpetual perkiness off-putting at the best of times, but ever since he’d begun having the dreams, it was a struggle to keep from flat-out running away.

David could tell, he knew. Max had caught David staring at him with concern from a distance more than once. Because while Max had made no secret that he didn’t care for David’s company, he had never seemed outright _scared_ of him before.

Max knew it was irrational. David might be annoying, but he had never given Max a reason to be afraid. Not like most of the adults in his life. But still… he couldn’t help but see those electric green eyes whenever David looked at him. The eyes that promised pain.

Therefore, his solution was to sleep as little as possible. No sleep, no dreams. No dreams, no fear. It made logical sense.

“This does _not_ make logical sense!” Neil screeched at him.

It was inevitable that Max’s tent-mates would notice him hoarding coffee and staying up all night. He’d assumed they would understand, maybe even help him hide it from David and Gwen. He _hadn’t_ expected them both to flip out completely.

“Max, this is possibly the stupidest thing you could have done in this situation!” Neil continued to shriek. “Studies have proven that lack of sleep increases the pressure on your brain, causing stress and reducing mental capacity! Not to _mention,_ the coffee will increase your metabolism and damage your circulation, and cause long-term strain on your mental state if you chug it like you’ve been doing!”

Nikki elbowed Neil out of the way, taking her turn to get up in Max’s face. “Are we your friends or what?” She sounded equal parts concerned and offended. “If you’re having bad dreams, that’s what tent-mates are _for!_ And you didn’t even share the coffee!”

Max squirmed back in his cot uncomfortably. Nikki and Neil were crowding him, which he was _not_ comfortable with under normal circumstances, but right now they were reminding him very strongly of a pair of robots that featured prominently in his nightmares.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Neil demanded. “Why on Earth did you think this was a good idea?”

“Yeah,” Nikki added, her joints clicking and whirring. “You know you can tell us anything, right?”

“We’re your friends, Max.” Neil’s eyes glowed bright orange. “We’re here to help you.”

Max blinked hard, trying to bring reality back into focus. Nikki and Neil leaned closer, identical expressions of worry on their faces.

“Max? Buddy? You okay?” The voice was monotone and filled with static. A robotic impression of his friend.

“Uh, Max? Are you feeling alright?” N.I.K.K.I.’s claw-like hands were an inch from closing shut on his arms. The robots had Max cornered.

“Auto-targeting system engaged,” Neil-Bot said.

Max screamed. Shoving his friends out of the way, he leaped off the cot and bolted out of the tent.

Neil and Nikki shared a concerned glance.

“Uhh… should we go get David?” Nikki asked uncertainly.

“We should definitely go get David,” Neil agreed.

* * *

 

Max couldn’t stay awake.

It was getting more and more difficult to climb out of the relaxation vault in the mornings (or whatever passed for morning in this sunless hellhole). DaVID had sent N.I.K.K.I. and Neil-Bot to drag him out of bed into the test chambers, and more than once to wake him when he fell asleep in the middle of a test.

He was afraid. If he kept falling asleep on the job, DaVID would dispose of him the instant he found a new human to take his place. And worn down as he was, Max wasn’t ready to give up and die quite yet.

But he was so _tired._ His limbs felt weighed down; he nearly collapsed with every step. He’d been sleeping far more than usual, yet he felt as though he’d stayed awake for days on end.

Worst of all, his dreams were bleeding into his waking life. Auditory hallucinations of birdsong and running water, the feel of a fresh breeze in a room with poor ventilation, and _trees._ Trees everywhere. It was getting to the point where Max couldn’t tell which walls were portal surfaces behind the intrusive visions, and had to resort to trial and error.

In his dreams, DaVID was kind. DaVID was thoughtful and cheerful and lively, everything that real DaVID was not. Real DaVID was reaching the end of his patience with Max.

“Max, I don’t want to put too much pressure on you, but I’d appreciate it if you finished this as quickly as possible,” DaVID announced as Max stumbled half-asleep down a hallway. “Not to alarm you, but our facility is hitting a little… snag.”

Max hesitated, wondering if this had something to do with his replacement. Was DaVID having trouble finding new humans? That wouldn’t be a surprise. The outside world was… unpleasant.

“You see, the illustrious founder of Camperture Science, Mr. Campbell, had some… interesting theories about the multiverse. Not to get too technical, but his Perpetual Testing Initiative involved throwing people and objects back and forth between universes willy-nilly. After a while, this caused a few tiny, almost insignificant rifts in the space-time continuum. And it just so happens that one of those alternate realities is on an imminent collision course with ours! Isn’t that exciting?

“Anyhoo, I have no idea how this will affect our world. My calculations are coming up bupkis, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Don’t you just love surprises?” DaVID sounded genuinely enthused _. Psycho._

Max was afraid of the unknown. His life had been completely out of his control for as long as he could remember, but at least it was predictable. He couldn't guess what this new twist would mean, and that terrified him. But more than anything, he was determined to survive no matter what. He had subsisted through DaVID’s approbation thus far, but his time was running out. If this dimensional collision provided Max an opportunity to escape the facility or gain the upper hand against DaVID, he was prepared to seize it.

“In the short term, this just means that you’re going to have to get through these tests more quickly,” DaVID continued. “You don’t have a lot of time left either way, so let’s get as much science done as we can before it’s too late!”

The upbeat way DaVID announced Max’s impending demise made his stomach turn. DaVID was genuinely excited about every aspect of the testing process, including the exploitation of children in the name of vague science. Max never had been able to figure out exactly _what_ they were supposed to be testing.

He stepped over a phantom squirrel that dashed across his path and vanished into the wall. The nature hallucinations hardly bothered him anymore. But then again, he’d amazed himself with the kind of insanity he could get used to.

He didn’t notice the whirring sounds of turrets warming up until it was too late.

After that, everything happened all at once.

 _“Hello,”_ the cheerful voice- why was everything cheerful so _deadly-_ chirped as the laser sights locked onto Max. There were no walls to shelter behind, no nearby portal surfaces to escape through. Max was a sitting duck. The only way out... was straight forward.

Max’s mind raced at lightning speed as he leaped toward the turrets, somersaulting between them. His body, however, was not so quick to catch up. His reflexes were just _slightly_ too slow, weighed down by fatigue, and a bullet tore through his hip just as he collapsed into the turrets’ blind spot.

Gasping, half-blind with pain, Max fought to stay conscious as blood began to pool on the floor. The bullet had clipped his right side, ripping out a chunk of flesh just above his hip bone. Already, his pant leg was soaked all the way through. His tiny body, already strained to its limits, threatened to shut down entirely.

Max’s options were hopelessly limited. No rescue was forthcoming. The only access to medical supplies was in the elevator rooms, as dying on the testing track was considered to be simply part of the test.

As always, the only way out was straight forward.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, half delirious already, Max yanked his arms out of his jumpsuit and tied the sleeves around his waist as tightly as he could. It felt like a hopeless gesture, but he had no other ways of keeping his blood inside his body where it belonged.

The first step after he struggled to his feet was the hardest thing he’d ever done. But Max was in Survival Mode, and his brain had narrowed its focus onto that single goal. There was no room for hesitation or fear. Even as his every nerve screamed at him to drop to the ground then and there, Max continued on because he had _never_ given up once in his life, and he wasn’t about to start now.

* * *

 

It took David the better part of an hour to find Max in the forest. The boy was sitting under a tree, clutching his head as though it pained him.

“Max?” David asked hesitantly. Max jolted upright, staring at David with something approaching terror.

David stopped in his tracks. Max looked as though he would flee again if David came any closer, so he knelt on the forest floor at a cautious distance.

“Max, can you tell me what’s wrong?” he implored. “Neil and Nikki told me you’ve been having night terrors, and… it might be my imagination, but I feel like you’ve been avoiding me more than usual. Is it… did I do something wrong? Did I scare you away?” his voice cracked.

Max sniffled. He’d never seen David look so sad, not even after that Sparrow bullshit. Some stupid, sentimental part of him wanted to assure David that he hadn’t failed as a counselor, that Max didn’t hate him, that David was in fact the closest thing he had to (if he could say it out loud) a parent– but he couldn’t look at David’s face without seeing metal-plated menace.

“David, I…” he squeezed his eyes shut to block out the visions of gleaming steel, so anachronistic among the forest scene. _David won’t hurt me. David’s going to kill me. It’s all in my head. I can’t trust him. He’s not dangerous. He’ll kill me, he’ll kill me, if I make a single wrong move he’ll kill me._

“I can’t tell what’s real anymore,” he admitted in the tiniest of voices.

“Max…” David breathed, watching with utter helplessness as the boy shuddered in misery.

He was focused so intently on Max that it took him a few seconds to realize that it wasn’t just Max who was shaking. The ground was rumbling under his feet.

In the blink of an eye, David had lunged forward and scooped Max into his arms. Ignoring the shriek of surprise and fear, David pressed his back to a tree and hunched around Max protectively.

A dull roar surrounded them as the shaking intensified and the needles of the surrounding trees all rustled in unison. Max was fighting to get away, clawing at David and hyperventilating.

A bright flash filled the forest.

Everything fell silent.

Max froze. David squeezed his eyes shut and blinked rapidly to rid himself of the temporary blindness, suddenly afraid that Max had fainted or spontaneously died right then and there.

To David’s relief, Max was alive and awake, his struggle seemingly forgotten as he stared over David’s shoulder in frozen shock.

“David,” Max whispered. “This… is another dream, right? Tell me I’m hallucinating again, okay?”

As David turned around, he felt as though he agreed wholeheartedly with Max for the first time since camp began. Because this must be a dream. Either he was asleep, or the world had come to an end, but this could not possibly be real.

Lying on the forest floor was another child, absolutely identical to Max.

* * *

 

Max was dying.

He knew he wouldn’t make it to the elevator. There was a cube ahead of him, and a button, and a ramp of some kind, but his brain was stretched to its limits simply by putting one foot in front of the other.

Still, he kept moving, propelled only by the sheer force of ten years of pent-up spite. A trail of blood streaked the floor behind him. He gripped the portal gun with numb fingers. The floor seemed to shake beneath him.

Wait…

The floor was _actually_ shaking.

Max stumbled to a halt as DaVID chimed in on cue. “Not to frighten you unnecessarily, Max, but it seems the dimensional refraction has begun! In layman’s terms, the barriers between our reality and another one are brushing against each other. No worries, though! I have everything under control.”

At that, the facility rumbled and the lights dimmed briefly.

“Uhh…” DaVID sounded uncertain. DaVID had _never_ sounded uncertain. “This might be a bit more serious than I thought. I can’t calculate the physical space disruption, but I’d hide under something until things calm down if I were you!”

He didn’t seem to realize Max was already half dead. Either that or he didn’t care.

 **“Warning,”** the synthesized voice announced. **“Multiversal fusion reaching critical mass. Chances of total annihilation: forty-seven percent.”**

“See? That’s less than half! We’ll be fine.” DaVID’s voice sounded echoey and far away. Or maybe that was just Max.

His vision was wavering. No… the air in front of him was shimmering. It looked like one of his portals, but it wasn’t attached to a wall. Instead, the nebulous circle tore a hole in midair, and on the other side… Max saw trees.

_Trees._

In that moment, Max realized two important things.

First: his hallucinations had not been dreams at all. His subconscious had been attuned to this other reality as it approached his own, in ways that DaVID was unaware of. That place… with the trees and the kind humans and the warmth… it was _real._

Second: For the first time in Max’s young life, DaVID was not in total control of the situation. It was frightening, yes, but also an opportunity. This unstable-looking portal was possibly the only chance to escape he would ever have.

Dubious, yes. Dangerous, almost certainly. But anything that could be waiting on the other side of the portal was preferable to the hell he was leaving behind.

Before he could second-guess himself, Max forced his feet back into motion and stumbled through the rippling rift.

* * *

 

After the ground stopped rumbling, dead silence fell. David and Max stared at the child on the ground for a full minute, waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the world to start making _sense_ again.

Finally, Max wriggled out of David’s arms and dropped to the ground. “What the _actual fuck_ is going on here?” he breathed, edging closer to his doppelganger.

“Max, what is this?” David asked in total confusion. “Do you have, like… a twin that you never told me about?”

“Uh… no?” Max sounded uncertain.

The boy seemed half-conscious, but his turquoise eyes followed David as he hesitantly approached. His arms tightened around the strange gun he was holding.

“He’s bleeding,” David gasped. Sure enough, the boy’s orange jumpsuit was stained with fresh-looking blood. With the practiced reflexes of years spent caring for reckless children, David snatched the boy off the ground and took off towards the camp in the blink of an eye. Max was left to trail behind him, so utterly baffled that he barely even noticed that for the first time in weeks, his visions had vanished completely.

By the time he made it back to camp, David had vanished into the cabin. The rest of the campers had crowded around the door, all shouting over each other in varying degrees of panic.

“Guys, what the f-” Max was cut off by Nikki launching herself at him and tackling him in a hug.

“ _Max!”_ she shrieked. “Are you okay? What happened? David brought you in- he said you were hurt- you were bleeding- he- I- wait, what are you doing out here?” her tone changed abruptly as her mind caught up with Max’s presence.

“Yeah!” Neil elbowed past her. “How did you get out here? I thought you were in the cabin with David.”

The rest of the campers had turned to Max, all expectantly waiting to hear the answer. Max edged away from the crowd, fighting the urge to flee back into the forest.

“Max, what’s going on?”

“What happened?”

“Tell us or I’ll punch you!”

“Yeah, dude, what’s the problem?”

Max hissed a deep breath through his teeth. “Guys…” he started, then stopped. “I… I don’t really know what just happened. Honestly, I have no idea. But… you’re not going to believe this.”

* * *

 

Max had never seen the sky before, but he was pretty sure he was looking at it now.

His dreams hadn’t done it justice. It was beautiful. For the first time in his life there was no ceiling above him, and it was dizzying and wonderful and terrifying all at once. The sun was brighter than anything he’d ever seen, and it was so _warm..._

The view above him was so stunning that he didn’t notice DaVID until his face was right in front of him, blocking the sky with a black silhouette.

Max was too drained to even feel frightened. All he felt was disappointment that he’d botched his escape; that he’d only been able to see the sun for the briefest of moments before DaVID caught up to him.

He should have known he could never escape. Still, he struggled to climb to his feet, to run, but his limbs wouldn’t respond. Of _course_ now would be the time his failing body finally gave out.

Max closed his eyes, bracing himself for death, when he felt two arms slide beneath him and lift him off the ground. Too exhausted and too shocked to squirm away, he simply froze possum-esque as he was carried swiftly through the forest.

The world spun and his bullet wound was agony. But the arms holding him were warm, and there was voice near him that was full of concern and kindness, even if he couldn’t quite make out the words. No one had spoken to him like that in… ever.

Max fought to remain conscious as he was brought indoors and set down somewhere soft. His jumpsuit was pulled off- _hey I don’t consent to that-_ and someone was poking at his wound- _I don’t consent to that either-_ and the portal gun was being pulled out of his hands- _absolutely not, I’ll die before I let go of it, give it back get away from me GET AWAY FROM ME-_

* * *

 

“What. The actual. _Fuck,”_ Max repeated.

“He looks exactly like you,” Gwen said for the fifth time.

“Max, you must have _some_ idea where he came from,” David pressed.

“For the last time, _no!”_ Max snapped. “Like I said, I’ve never seen him before in my life! Just ask the weird kid himself when he wakes up!”

David’s eyebrows pressed together. “He might not wake up at all,” he said worriedly. “He seems to have lost a lot of blood. We might have to take him to a hospital.”

Sure enough, the second Max’s chocolatey complexion, while still darker than David’s, was ghoulish compared to the original Max. He looked like he’d never been outside a day in his life.

“David, will you stop and _think_ for one second in your life? Do you _really_ want to explain why there are _two of me?”_ Max snapped. “Besides, If you take one of your campers to the hospital looking like this, they’ll call the police for sure, there’ll be investigations and lawsuits, and then the camp will be shut down!”

“Shut… shut down?” David repeated weakly. “But… but I…”

Gwen rested a hand on his arm comfortingly. “It’ll be okay, David. If this kid is anything like Max, then he’s tough enough to survive anything.”

David relaxed with half a grin. “Yeah. You’re right.”

Max found he couldn’t pull his gaze away from the portal gun, resting innocently on the bedside table.

“I swear I recognize that thing,” he muttered to himself.

“Hm? Did you say something, Max?” Gwen said, looking up from the unconscious kid.

“Me? Uh, it’s probably nothing,” Max stammered. “It’s just… I mean, I’ve, uh, been having this weird recurring dream is all. I think that gun was in my dream.”

Gwen stared at him for an awkwardly long time.

“Well, it’s no weirder than anything else about this,” she finally said. “Is this kid in your dreams too?”

Max was _not_ used to being taken seriously by adults. Even when he’d had appendicitis and been on the floor screaming in pain, his parents had berated him for trying to get attention. They hadn’t taken him to the hospital until it was almost too late.

“Dunno. I had a bunch of weird dreams about, like, robots and stuff. But I didn’t see another kid like me. I mean, I could’ve been dreaming I _was_ him? I guess?” Max shrugged uncomfortably.

David and Gwen shared a glance again. David shook his head.

“You were right earlier, Max. All we can do is ask him when he wakes up.”

* * *

 

Max woke up to a splitting headache.

He felt like he’d landed on his head at terminal velocity. His limbs were weighed down, as though a heavy blanket had been draped over him. But his relaxation vault didn’t have blankets.

On the plus side, the nanobots in his bloodstream had been at work repairing the damage to his body while he’d been unconscious. The bullet wounds had faded to a dull ache, and a stiffness he knew would persist for days.

But he was alive at least. For now.

Max kept his eyes squeezed shut. With any luck, he could sneak in a few more minutes of rest before being roused for the day’s tests. Keeping up with DaVID’s punishing expectations was a trial at the best of times. Especially with the dreams he’d been having.

Wait.

Max’s eyes flew open. He barely had time to register that he was not, in fact, inside his relaxation vault when DaVID’s face appeared above him. Max flinched away reflexively before realizing- _holy shit-_ this face was soft and smiling and _human._

DaVID frowned, concerned. “I’m sorry, did I scare you?”

Max’s brain fuzzed into static for a few moments before the memories of what happened sorted themselves out. _Oh. I’m not in the facility anymore._

_I’m not in the facility anymore._

_I’m… free?_

“Are you alright?” DaVID asked. “Why are you crying? Are you in pain?”

Trying to restrain his sniffles, Max shook his head. It didn’t hurt too badly anymore, by his standards. Still, he squirmed uncomfortably when DaVID pulled up his shirt to check his bullet wounds and gasped in surprise.

“Where did your wounds go?” DaVID asked, shocked. “Weren’t you bleeding? How did this happen?”

This time, he looked at Max as though he was actually expecting an answer. Max just shrugged, suddenly _very_ aware that though he may have escaped DaVID’s clutches, he’d just thrown himself out of the frying pan into an uncertain fire. This smiling man could very well be even worse than the robot version. As for the woman and… wait, was that someone who looked just like Max?

“What’s the matter?” DaVID said, gentler now. “You can talk to us.”

 _No I can’t,_ Max would have said if he could. Then again, if he _could_ have said it, he wouldn’t have needed to. He still vividly remembered the day, only a couple of years ago, that DaVID had become fed up with Max’s constant back-sass and decided that his test subjects no longer required vocal cords. The resulting surgery had been brief but merciless. Not a day had gone by since then that Max hadn’t wished he could give DaVID a piece of his mind.

He’d never missed his voice more than he did right now.

He watched DaVID’s face crease with concern as he put two and two together. “Can… can you not talk?” he said hesitantly.

Max silently shook his head. In no time, a pad of paper and a pencil were pressed into his hands.

“Alright, can you write down what happened?” David said encouragingly.

Max stared blankly at the paper. There were no words to describe what he felt… because DaVID had never bothered to teach him to read and write. All the warning signs on the test chambers were displayed using numbers and pictures. Max had never learned any written form of communication.

Left at a loss for anything else to do, Max began to draw a picture. A stick figure jumping between two circles, a cube with a heart shape, a robot with a familiar face suspended from the ceiling…

“Holy shit,” someone breathed from right next to him.

Max jumped, not realizing that his doppelganger had snuck up on him and was staring at the paper.

“This is all the weird stuff I’ve been seeing in my dreams,” the other Max said. “Is that… are you telling me that was all _real?”_

Max, quick on the uptake as ever, barely blinked as all the pieces fell together. Flipping to a fresh page, he rapidly sketched two matching stick figures with curly hair. Drawing thought bubbles and arrows, he tried to illustrate the concept of sharing dreams across dimensions.

Damn, communication _sucked_ when you couldn’t use words.

Still, with enough charades and guesswork, eventually the people around him seemed to get the gist.

“So… you’re a version of Max from another world,” David said slowly. “Is that even possible?”

Max shrugged and nodded. _Well, it happened, so I guess it must be possible._

David frowned at the drawing. “Do you want us to help you get home?”

Max shuddered as his body physically rejected the idea. To go home was to doom himself to a slow, grueling death at DaVID’s hands, to never again see the sky and the sun that he’d only had a brief glimpse of, to be forever at the mercy of the cruel, cold psychopath…

“Hey! Are you okay?” David’s face was too close again, frowning with more worry and compassion than DaVID’s metal face was even capable of showing.

Max shrank back, dropping the notepad and clutching the blanket around him. As nice as this David had been so far, Max was a long way from comfortable letting anyone get close.

“Okay,” David leaned away, holding up his hands in a nonthreatening manner. “If you don’t want to go back to wherever you came from, I understand. We can make a place for you here, where you’ll be safe.”

Max wanted to believe it. He wanted so badly to believe that he was truly safe.

But he didn’t even know the meaning of the word.

**Author's Note:**

> I am OBSESSED with the Portal Portal AU. Seriously, like, more than is probably healthy.
> 
> I will write a sequel to this, so hmu with your ideas! :D


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